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MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OE AGRICULTURE. 






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At a late meeting of the BOARD OF AGRICULTURE it was 

Voted, That this Board recognizes the great importance of establishing frequent 
Markets or Fairs for the Sale of Agricultural Products. 

Voted, That the subject be brought before the County Agricultural Societies, 
with the request that they will take early steps for the establishment of Markets 
within their respective districts. 

Voted, That the Secretary communicate the above to the several Agricultural 
Societies. 

This Board, recognizing the importance of establishing frequent Mar- 
kets throughout the Commonwealth for the Sale of Agricultural Products, 
have appointed the undersigned a Committee, for the purpose of securing the 
united action of those interested in the subject towards the attainment of this 
object. By a vote of the Board, which is herewith submitted, the County 
Agricultural Societies are invited to take such action as will forward this 
important movement within their several neighborhoods. So important, how- 
ever, does it seem to the undersigned to secure an early accomplishment of 
this measure, that, not contenting themselves with forwarding these resolu- 
tions, they have presumed to accompany them, with a few comments which 
they deem to be pertinent to the occasion. They likewise invite your attention 
to the Prize Essay, .by Mr. Allen W. Dodge, in which the whole subject is 
fully and ably discussed ; and they hope, by thus spreading the whole matter 
before you, that it will receive your earnest and thoughtful consideration. 

Unlike most projects of amelioration and improvement, this involves no 
expense, and no working system or machinery requiring money or time to 
put it in operation, and but little change in the existing order of things. It 
amounts simply to this — that the farmers of a neighborhood, larger or smaller 
in extent, according to circumstances, shall agree to meet together on certain 
days, and at a certain place, for the disposal of their agricultural products — 
that instead of peddling them out as they do now, or selling to such chance 
customers as may come along, they will conduct their business generally with 
reference to these market days. Every farmer has, from time to time, more or 
less business to transact, which has nothing to do with the sales of his crops ; — 
estates are to be settled, money is to be paid or received, town or county 
business has to be attended to, and numberless small transactions occupy 



2 CIRCULAR. 

much of his time. By common consent at first, and afterwards from its 
manifest convenience, these transactions would all take place on market days, 
and the saving of time in this particular alone would be ample compensation 
for their establishment; and when once the habit had become settled, the 
farmer would look forward to market day next to his weekly day of rest, 
as the pleasantest and most useful in the year. Besides purchasers that would 
attend from a distance to supply larger markets, sellers also would visit these 
markets to meet the wants of farmers. Agricultural implements, especially 
those in most constant use, and those also that possessed any new merit or 
advantage, would find their way to these markets ; in short, all that a farmer 
needs in his business, would come to him upon these occasions. Farm laborers 
would seek this opportunity to get places, and both the employer and the 
employed would be able each to procure what was best suited to his wants. 

These market days have been, established for a long time over the 
continent of Europe, and all agricultural products are sold or bargained 
for upon these occasions. In England they have existed since the time of 
Alfred the Great ; and to their greater frequency and number in that country 
may be ascribed, in a great measure, its superiority in the art of agriculture 
over all other nations. They have made the English farmer a man of busi- 
ness as well as a mere cultivator of the soil. They have been the means, by 
bringing him constantly in contact with those engaged in the same pursuits 
with himself — each seeing what the others were doing — of spurring him on 
to improvement, and of preventing that isolation, the natural tendency of 
agricultural pursuits, which is the bane of all progress. One of the under- 
signed has resided in an agricultural district in England, and has familiarized 
himself by careful observation with the general system of English agriculture 
and he could find nothing to account for its greater profitableness as .compared 
with ours, except in the fact, that every farmer has a ready market close at 
hand for what he may produce, and the power of adapting his cultivation to 
the knowledge he has of his market. He has only to ascertain the prices 
obtained in the great markets, and with this knowledge he knows what is a 
fair price in the one where he sells. He makes his money crop of beef, 
mutton, grain, butter, cheese, or other product, according to the nature of his 
farm and of his market, and he so manages his business with reference to the 
market, as to sell with the least possible expense in time and transportation. 
For example, he may have fat cattle ready for the butcher ; there are certain 
market days, well known and established, when the London butcher attends 
to make his purchases. He may not even drive his cattle to market, but 
may bargain for them to be delivered at a given day. Or he may have a crop 
of oats, this he may sell by sample ; and thus save the cost of transportation, 
in case the market happens not to suit "his ideas as to price. This is briefly 
stated to show the benefit of system in comparison with our desultory method of 
hunting up purchasers, as is now the case. On a well established, well known 
market day, buyers and sellers, meet together ; fair prices are at once estab- 
lished, and no time is lost, no needless expense incurred, by searching 
here and there for what may be easily and cheaply brought together under a 
proper system. 

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CIRCULAR. 



Massachusetts is as favorably situated as England is for the establishment of 
markets. Her manufacturing cities, towns, and villages are spread as thickly 
over the State, and the consumers are far in excess of what is supplied from the 
soil. All that is needed on our part is to create unity of purpose and of action 
on the part of consumer and producer. The cost of bringing the article 
produced to the consumer would, in a vast number of cases, afford an 
enormous profit to the producer. All this he could not be expected to get, 
but it would be divided between the producer and the consumer. The 
turkey that is picked up by a travelling buyer through our country towns, at 
75 cents, finds its way to Faneuil Hall, and the consumer there willingly 
pays $1.50 for it ; the difference is the cost of getting it to market with one or 
two intermediate profits, which are by this method' unnecessarily added to it. 
If the purchaser for the Boston market could have attended a country market 
on a poultry day, when all who had it for sale for miles around attended, he 
could have afforded to have given $1 for the turkey, and have sold it in Bos- 
ton at $1.25. This is a supposed case ; but at the same time it is one which 
every farmer will admit to be justified by experience, and it is adduced to 
illustrate the general principle, that the producer pays the principal cost of 
transportation. A farmer in Berkshire County can get no more for a turkey 
in Boston market than one who brings it from Chelsea ; but if he has a mar- 
ket for the turkey near home he is sure of getting the Boston price, less a very 
moderate cost of transportation. This cost is always less in proportion to the 
amount, and the expense of collecting the requisite quantity to make the 
transportation cheap, is almost entirely saved by having it brought to a central 
point. 

The value of farming property depends very much upon its proximity to a 
quick and ready market, and hence it is that farms in the neighborhood of 
large cities bear so much higher prices than those which are remote. But 
even those most favorably situated in this respect would be benefited by 
regular market days. Even the little County of Middlesex, in England, of 
only half the size of our own County of the same name, with the city of 
London and its two million of inhabitants in her borders, has five regular 
markets, besides the great ones at Smithfield and Covent Garden. So too, 
notwithstanding the great manufacturing towns all over England, each a large 
daily market of itself, yet every thirty-five thousand square acres of agricul- 
tural property in that favored region is blessed with regular market days. 
It is sometimes said that a man may walk through England, and attend a 
market fair every day in the year. 

We have dwelt upon the example thus furnished to us by England because 
of the similarity of that country to our own State, as it respects the consumers 
of agricultural productions, both having a large manufacturing population, 
both consuming in excess of production. We offer her example in this 
respect for imitation. We are fully convinced that we do not overrate the 
importance of the proposed measure. We believe, that if adopted, it will 
have the effect of introducing a better and more profitable system of farm- 
ing ; that farmers will learn thereby what are the most profitable objects of 
cultivation ; they will acquire a better knowledge of economy in conducting 



4 CIRCULAR. 

their business ; that they will learn to adapt their operations more intelli- 
gently with reference to those general laws of trade which determine the 
success of every other branch of industry ; they will find mutual advantage 
in comparing frequently the results of their labors, and that they will have the 
constantly increasing pleasure of frequent intercourse, so advantageous to men 
engaged in a common pursuit. 

Your attention to this subject, and that of the Agricultural Society in your 
neighborhood, is earnestly requested. The Committee are of the opinion, that 
by the conference of the trustees and members of our Agricultural Societies, 
upon the expediency of these Fairs, by Town or District meetings, and more 
than all, by the zealous co-operation of all individuals who, after full investi- 
gation, feel the importance of the subject, much may be accomplished. The 
undersigned would be happy to receive any communications or suggestions 
upon this topic, and will readily engage, so far as their time or other engage- 
ments will permit, to give their aid to such measures as may tend to secure 
this great benefit to the farmers of Massachusetts — the establishment of 
regular " Market Fairs " throughout the State. 

KICHARD S. FAY, ) Committee 
CHARLES G. DAVIS, Y of 
WILLIAM SUTTON, ) the Board. 

Boston, March 1, 1859. 



MARKET J3A.YS. 
PRIZE ESSAY ON FAIRS. 

BY A. W. DODGE, OF HAMILTON. 

In offering its prize for the best essay on the advantages to 
be derived from establishing regular fairs or market-days 
throughout the State, for the sale and exchange of agricultural 
products, it is presumed that the society did not mean to con- 
sider the question as settled in favor of such fairs ; but wished 
rather to elicit inquiry into their merits as compared with the 
prevailing modes of disposing of the products of the farm ; and • 
if, upon a careful and candid consideration of the question, it 
should be found that there were sufficient and weighty reasons 
for the establishing of such fairs, that then some practical plan 
should be proposed for this purpose. 

These fairs or market days, which in fact are nothing more 
than a periodical concourse of people at a stated place, for 
selling and buying agricultural commodities and for hiring 
laborers, have long been in successful operation in Great 
Britain. To the farmers there, they are of great importance, 
constituting their chief, or perhaps their only opportunities of 
effecting profitable sales or purchases of stock. The different 
breeds of neat stock, of horses, of sheep and of swine, are 
exposed to sale, often in large numbers and of great excellence, 
at the local fairs in the quarter where they are raised ; and they 
attract to them dealers from a distance, with the certainty that 
they can find just the description of animals they are in want 
of. This, with the local attendance, usually insures a brisk 
business. And so great is the convenience of a market day 
considered to be to the neighborhood in which it is held, that 
new fairs are constantly springing up, the only limitation to 
their number being the amount of business which may be 
controlled by them. 



6 MARKET DAYS. 

Besides live stock, fruit, vegetables and grains, find pur- 
chasers at these fairs, and they are offered for sale either in 
bulk or by sample, the latter being the more usual way of 
disposing of large quantities of any commodity. Most of these 
fairs, too, have a well-known and specific character, and are 
noted, some for the superior quality of one kind of stock or of 
produce, and others for that of another kind. And they often 
receive their name from the predominant article exposed to 
sale ; as, for example, a fair at which large quantities of cherries 
are presented, is called the Cherry Fair, and one of which 
sheep is the characteristic feature is called a Sheep Fair. 

But in this country, or at least in New England, we have 
nothing answering to these fairs or market days. The nearest 
approach to them are the cattle markets established in the 
immediate vicinity of our largest cities, and mainly for the 
supply of the meat for their consumption, as those held weekly 
at Brighton and Cambridge, in our own Commonwealth, and 
which are the only markets of any extent for the sale of live 
stock, within her borders. These, however, differ in some 
important particulars from the fairs proposed for consideration. 
They are exclusively for the sale and purchase of live stock, 
and that stock is mostly brought from a distance, sometimes 
even from the far West. They afford a good opportunity for 
farmers in the surrounding country to purchase such animals 
as they stand in need of, and they are resorted to very generally 
by them for this object. But they are not intended to encourage 
the sale of stock by these farmers, for the very obvious reason 
that but little or no stock is raised by them. They are also 
very inconveniently located, being at one extremity of the 
State, and therefore can be attended by the larger part of the 
farming population only at great expense. 

What, then, would be some of the benefits of regular fairs or 
market days, established throughout the State, for the sale and 
exchange of agricultural products — benefits that might reason- 
ably be expected from them ? In the first place, they would 
offer to every enterprising farmer in their neighborhood a home 
market, or a market near at hand and easy of access. Studded 
all over as Massachusetts is — especially on her eastern borders 
— with cities and large towns and manufacturing villages, it 
might be thought that the farmers are amply supplied with good 



MARKET DAYS. T 

markets and at their very doors. To some extent this is indeed 
true, but it is equally true that very many farmers — a majority 
perhaps — are obliged to travel eight or twelve miles and some- 
times more, in order to reach their nearest market town. The 
loss of time in thus travelling to and from market, and the 
wear and tear of horse and vehicle, are no inconsiderable items 
of expense to the farmer who is placed in this unfavorable 
position in regard to markets. Suppose that he follows the 
market weekly for two-thirds of the year, there are then thirty- 
five days to be deducted from the working days of the year, and 
if in the fall he goes to market two or more times in a week ? 
the number would be increased fully to fifty days, including the 
occasional days in winter devoted to this object. 

But the establishing of regular market days in towns near to 
these farmers, would prevent very materially this heavy loss of 
time and the expense to which they are now subjected. If there 
were twelve such market days in a year, that is, monthly 
markets, where they would be sure of finding purchasers, they 
would save the difference between twelve and fifty days of time, 
which they then would have to spend on the farm in increasing 
its productions, besides making a corresponding saving in the 
service of horse and wagon. This saving to the farmer may 
perhaps be more sensibly measured and appreciated, by con- 
sidering what has been so justly stated by Henry C. Cary, in 
the Plough, Loom and Anvil, for September, 1851, in respect 
of labor. 

" The first of all the taxes to be paid by labor is that of 
transportation. It takes precedence even of the claims of 
government, for the man who has labor to sell or exchange must 
take it to the place at which it can be sold. If the market be 
so far distant that it will occupy so large a portion of his time 
in going to and returning from his work, as to leave him insuffi- 
cient to purchase food enough to preserve life, he will perish of 
starvation. If it be somewhat less distant, he may obtain a 
small amount of food. If brought near, he may be well fed. 
Still nearer, he may be well fed and poorly clothed. Brought 
to his door, so as to make a market for all his time, he will be 
well fed, well clothed, well housed, and he will be able to feed, 
clothe, lodge, and educate his children." 



8 MARKET DAYS. 

What is here said of labor applies with equal force to the 
products of labor ; the nearer the market the more perfect is the 
power to exchange them and the higher is their price. Trite as 
is Franklin's proverb, it is not the less true, that " time is 
money." And yet our New England farmers, trained as they 
are to habits of thrift and economy in other particulars, and 
certainly not wanting in any of the essential qualifications for 
trade, seem, too many of them, in this important matter of 
marketing their produce, to set scarcely any value at all upon 
time. But if their time be worth to them any thing at all, if 
it will yield any return when skilfully employed, it surely 
ought not to be thus misspent, not to say squandered in a 
reckless and shameful manner. 

In the second place, market days, by bringing the purchaser 
to the producer, or rather by creating a half-way place and 
common ground of meeting for business, instead of the pro- 
ducer being obliged, as is now most frequently the case, to go 
to the purchaser with his commodities, would tend to make 
better prices and quicker and more certain sales of them. As 
at present managed, the farmer takes or sends to his nearest 
market town such things as he has to dispose of, and unless he 
has a regular set of customers, he may be put to much trouble 
and inconvenience to find a purchaser, and must then often sell 
to a disadvantage. If, on the other hand, there is collected a 
large number of buyers at a stated time and place, and there 
are assembled such products of the farm as all are desirous of 
purchasing, it is clear that there will be more or less competi- 
tion, and that sales will be readily effected at remunerating 
prices. 

The tendency of trade in this country is to centralization. 
The large manufacturers of cotton and woollen goods and of 
boots and shoes, instead of selling at their factories, have their 
places for making sales in the metropolis. And where the 
manufacturer and the salesman are united in the same person, 
it makes but little difference whether the factory and the shop 
are in one and the same place or at a distance from each other. 
But where the manufacturer sells his goods to the merchant, 
who buys to sell again, — as in the case with boots and shoes — 
then it makes oftentimes an the difference to the manufacturer, 
of a living profit by the sale of his goods, or no profit at all, 



MARKET DAYS. 9 

whether the purchaser comes to the manufacturer, or the 
manufacturer goes to the purchaser. The Scripture adage — 
" It is naught says the buyer," — will operate in the former case 
with unrestricted vigor, while in the latter it will fail of its 
object to depreciate the price of that which it is known is 
wanted by the purchaser. 

In the third place, no small advantage would accrue to the 
farmer by the establishing of regular market days, from their 
tendency to equalize the prices of agricultural products. At 
present, prices are left to depend too much upon caprice and 
accident, and but little difference is made between different 
qualities of the same article. An inferior article often brings 
as much as, or more than, a superior one; so that the sale of 
agricultural products resembles more a lottery than a fair and 
equable traffic. " What luck to-day?" is the usual interroga- 
tory put to the farmer on his return from market ; meaning 
thereby not whether a sale was effected of his produce, but at 
what rates. And as a consequence of this uncertainty in prices, 
there is but little inducement to prepare for the market any 
commodity — such as butter or cheese — of a superior quality, 
when it is well understood that as a matter of dollars and cents, 
an inferior one, requiring less time and labor in its production, 
will pay much better. The advantage of an open market where 
products of a similar kind are exposed to sale side by side, is 
that a standard of prices is readily fixed, each takes its place 
according to its merit and commands the price to which it is 
fairly entitled. And this advantage inures to the buyer as well 
as the seller, and gives character and stimulus to the market. 

In the fourth place, in connection with this benefit and closely 
allied to it, is the healthy emulation which is excited by bring- 
ing different specimens of the same products into comparison 
with one another. Competition of the right kind at once 
springs up — a competition to excel in the quality of the article 
produced and not merely in the price obtained for it. The man 
who has been contented to produce an ordinary article, because 
he has generally obtained a good price for it, or because he has 
never seen any thing superior to it, is stimulated by the success 
of his neighbor, both as to the quality and price of his products, 
to produce a better ; whilst the other, to maintain his advantage 
and to avoid the mortification of being surpassed by his com- 
2 



10 MARKET DAYS. 

petitor, increases his skill and pains-taking. It is thus that 
progress in all the arts is effected, and it is only thus that 
progress in the important art of agriculture is to be achieved. 

Besides this beneficial result, these fairs would tend to diffuse 
information, just as our cattle shows do, by promoting inter- 
course between men engaged in a common pursuit, and bring- 
ing their minds into contact on subjects connected with it. 
Inquiry into the different processes by which results are 
obtained in the various branches of husbandry is thus excited, 
and the why and the wherefore ©f each are freely discussed. 
It cannot be otherwise than that the farmer must return from 
these fairs a wiser man, or if he thought that all wisdom would 
die with him, that this conceit must be rubbed out of him by 
the friction to which he has there been subjected. It often 
happens, for want of this intercourse among farmers, this 
interchange of opinions and mutual comparison of skill and 
intelligence, that individuals exhibit an overweening pride in 
respect of certain processes or products, which is not warranted 
by facts and is simply ridiculous. One of these self-sufficient 
farmers, who had always in his own estimation the best of every 
thing, was heard to utter the boast, when speaking of the 
prospects for a hay crop, " that he should have had the best in 
the county, if his hay-seed had only caught!" 

There is no denying that as a class our farmers are set in 
their opinions, whether well or ill founded, and this arises as 
much from their living comparatively by themselves, as from 
that independence of character which springs from their occu- 
pation. The commercial intercourse of these fairs would supply 
just what is wanting to many of our farmers ; it would liberalize 
their views and enlarge the sphere of their observation, and as 
a necessary consequence agricultural knowledge would be 
advanced. Indeed these fairs would become a school for the* 
young farmer, and for all farmers who were not too old to learn. 
The various breeds of stock could here be learned, their points 
noted, their peculiar marks of excellence ascertained, and a vast 
amount of experience and information in regard to them gained. 
Trained in such a school, our farmers would become much 
better judges than they now are, of farm stock. And will any 
one pretend that it is not vital to the interests of the farmer to 
be able to judge of a good cow or of a good pair of working 



MARKET DAYS. 11 

cattle, so as to be seldom disappointed in making his purchases ? 
Should he not here as in other transactions be able to think for 
himself, and if need be to give a reason for his opinion ? Will 
he not at least have more self-respect and command better the 
respect of others, than by a blind and hap-hazard way of doing 
his business ? 

The farmer needs to be well versed in the knowledge of buy- 
ing and selling, and this knowledge can be acquired only by 
observation and the exercise of his own faculties. Many farmers 
fail here. They raise good crops and they harvest them in good 
order ; but when they come to dispose of them they are at fault ; 
they are either too early or too late in making sales, and have 
usually the worst end of the bargain. Now why is this ? 
Mainly for want of practical experience in trade. The narrow 
round of their customers gives no opportunity for them to learn, 
and they go through life with but little skill in this the financial 
department of husbandry. The establishing of market-days, by 
collecting large numbers of buyers at one place, and by the 
competition excited thereby, would give to the farmer more tact 
in trading than it is possible for him now to acquire. 

In the last place, these market days or fairs would tend to 
concentrate New England farming upon fewer products, by 
making near and certain markets for them. As it is now, our 
farm products are too varied ; we raise a little of every thing, 
and not enough of any one thing to make it profitable, from the 
expense of disposing of them. Of many articles raised on the 
farm, the little surplus over what is wanted for home consump- 
tion is taken to market. As a consequence, sales are uncertain 
and the proceeds come in by driblets. And there is at present 
little inducement to go largely into any one production. But 
create a fixed market near at hand, and our farming would at 
once shape itself accordingly. One farmer would take to neat 
stock, another to sheep and another to pigs, and they would all 
aim to have the best breeds, and the best animals to take to the 
market. Quick sales, too, would be had for them, if it was 
known, as it would be, when and where they were to be offered 
for sale. At the same market the farmer could buy what he is 
now forced to raise or to purchase at great disadvantage. The 
farmer who went into stock raising, would not be likely to raise 
all other farm products, as he could find them at hand, on 



12 MARKET DAYS. 

market day, much cheaper. There would thus be a division of 
agricultural labor that would be for the common good. Few 
farmers in this State think of raising their own wheat, as they 
can buy flour much cheaper ; and so it will be of many other 
farm products, when these markets are once established. 

We have dwelt thus at length on the general advantages of 
regular fairs or market days, if established throughout the State ; 
let us now consider some of the particular benefits to be derived 
from them. Every farmer wishes, more or less times in the 
year, to purchase live stock, either young animals to keep over 
winter, stores to fat, milch cows to recruit his dairy, or working 
oxen, or a bull, or a horse, or swine, sheep or poultry. Some 
of these are sure to be needed by him, and he must either ride 
round among the surrounding farmers, or he must go to Brighton 
or Cambridge, to make his purchases. The former course is 
attended with much loss of time and vast uncertainty of find- 
ing the precise animals wanted. The latter involves much 
expense, and the inconvenience of making the desired purchase 
at a distance from home, which distance must be travelled by 
the animals as well as himself, to reach home. 

Now, if there were a cattle fair held monthly or quarter-yearly 
in his neighborhood, he might at a trifling expense resort to it 
with the certainty or high probability of making his purchases, 
and he can return with them the same day to his farm. Or 
suppose that he has an ox which he wishes to mate ; he can drive 
him to the fair and he may there meet with another farmer 
similarly situated, and thus the two are brought into a position 
to make some sort of a trade, which may be mutually advanta- 
geous. Now these men might have ridden about a week or more 
exploring barnyards and fields for an odd ox — and what farmer's 
experience does not illustrate the supposed case ? — and perhaps 
be unsuccessful at last. ' 

Again, many farmers wish to purchase in the fall young stock 
to keep over winter, generally heifers expected to calve in the 
spring. Heretofore, when cattle travelled on foot in droves to 
the Brighton market, they came so near their doors as to present 
a good opportunity for such farmers to make their purchases. 
But now live stock is mostly transported to the large markets 
by the rail cars, and there is hardly any alternative for the 
farmer to make his purchases, but at these distant markets. 



MARKET DAYS. 13 

Were local fairs or market clays established, then there would 
doubtless be droves of cattle purchased at the large markets 
at Cambridge and Brighton, and driven down to such fairs to 
supply the demand there. The farmer could then have his 
choice of such stock and at a price that while it would leave a 
fair profit to the drovers, would be less than he could afford to 
pay at a distant market. This would occur only in districts 
where there were not young animals enough raised, to supply 
the local demand. 

It may be, too, that among the benefits to be derived from 
establishing regular fairs throughout the State, would be the 
encouragement they would thus indirectly give to stock hus- 
bandry, a branch of husbandry of late sadly neglected by us. 
The farmer is now tempted by the high prices offered, to sell 
his best calves at an early age to the butcher. And in fact their 
slaughtered carcasses are brought by the cars and by steamboats 
from New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, to supply the Boston 
market. Thus the number of neat animals raised to maturity, 
has not kept up with the wants of the community, and as a 
consequence the price of beef animals, milch cows and working 
cattle, has experienced a most unprecedented increase. If the 
farmer could find purchasers for two-year-old heifers and steers, 
as readily as for calves and at corresponding prices, what should 
hinder his making the attempt to rear them ? It will be said 
perhaps, that he has not the fodder to keep them over winter in 
any numbers, without encroaching on the feed of his other 
stock. Now here is just where he should rouse himself to more 
enterprise to meet this want, especially by the cultivation of 
root crops. It is remarkable what immense burdens of carrots, 
ruta-bagas, mangold wurzels and sugar beets, can be raised on 
small plots of well-manured land, and with no more skill and 
labor than are required in the cultivation of a corn crop. The 
turnip culture is often said to be the foundation of modern 
British husbandry. Why ? Because it enables the farmers of 
Great Britain to raise and keep a much larger number of animals 
— both neat stock and sheep — than they would otherwise possibly 
be enabled to do, and by this means to increase the manure 
heaps by which to augment the capacity of the soil for future 
crops. We have talked a great deal about the benefits of the 
root culture ; it forms one of the standing topics of cattle show 



14 MARKET DAYS. 

addresses, but it has made but slow progress among us. If we 
would once set about in good earnest and begin to rear young 
stock, we should know by actual experience the inestimable 
value of roots for winter feeding, and should help introduce 
into more general practice their culture. And the prospect of 
a home demand for young stock, such as would spring up from 
the establishing of market-days, would certainly tend to this 
desired result. 

Again, there is a growing demand and at high prices, for good 
milch cows, especially for those giving rich milk, well adapted 
for the table and for butter. Let a regular market day be 
established in their neighborhood, and an additional induce- 
ment would be offered to farmers to raise their most promis- 
ing heifer calves, by the certainty of finding purchasers of their 
cows just as soon as they were ready for sale ; and the compe- 
tition of a full attendance of purchasers would most likely 
create brisker sales and higher prices than would otherwise be 
had for them. The great question which is the best breed of 
cows for dairy purposes — if indeed there be one — would after a 
time be in a fair way to be settled. If the Jersey or the Ayr- 
shire breed be the best adapted to our pastures and our climate, 
and the most to be depended upon for the dairy, it would 
assuredly be found out ; for at a fair where dealers and farm- 
ers thus meet together, they would compare their experiences 
and make up a judgment accordingly. Or if a new breed of 
milch cows — pure natives perchance — should be originated 
among us, that should meet all our requirements, that would 
then be the one to receive the most attention to propagate it in 
its purity. Why ? Because quick sales, large prices and a 
certain market at our very doors, would operate as a stimulus 
to such stock raising, and it would be seen that it would pay, 
when we returned from the market with the proceeds. 

So too we should raise our pigs, instead of being dependent, 
as for years we have been, on New York and Ohio for our 
supply, notwithstanding the disease which has proved of late so 
fatal to those brought from those States. The loss from this 
source to the farmers and drovers of Massachusetts has been 
immense. Can any one say, in view of such a loss, that its 
recurrence should not be guarded against by increasing the 
number of breeding sows, and making a home market for their 



MARKET DAYS. 15 

litters by the establishing of regular markets for their sale ? 
They can readily be taken to market in wagons fitted for the 
purpose, or they could be driven in droves, if grown to be shoats, 
and the supply, it is safe to predict, would not for a long time, 
if ever, exceed the demand. And here too, as in the case with 
milch cows, there would be greater inducements, by the estab- 
lishing of such markets, to bestow more attention to breeding 
than has as yet been practised among us. 

Let us come now to farm products other than live stock, — 
how would they be affected by the establishing of these fairs ? 
Some products, such as hay for example, would hardly be 
offered for sale, unless it should be pressed in bundles so as to 
be made available for transportation. Wherever grains were 
grown in any considerable quantities, they would rarely fail of 
finding purchasers at these fairs, for it is well known that the 
supply of these has not for a long time been at all adequate to 
the wants of the State. And it is equally well known that the 
Indian corn and the rye raised in New England, is far superior 
in quality to that imported from the Middle and Southern 
States — for domestic consumption, indeed, no one having tasted 
the former would use the latter, unless from sheer necessity. 
Butter, cheese and eggs, articles that are now frequently sold at 
the door to travelling agents, or at country stores, and without 
any competition to enhance their price, would be brought to 
these fairs in sufficient quantities to attract purchasers for the 
larger markets, and sales would be made at their full value and 
for ready cash payment. 

In regard to apples, large quantities of which are some years 
raised in the State, the advantage of regular market days or 
fairs for their sale, would be very great. As they are a bulky 
article, their transportation to market is no trifling affair. Six 
or eight barrels are usually taken at a load in a one-horse wagon, 
requiring on an average thirty trips to sell a crop of two hun- 
dred barrels, besides the time consumed in finding purchasers. 
Now if the farmer were sure that on a particular day in the fall, 
dealers would attend the fair in his neighborhood, and make 
large purchases of this fruit for shipping or for re-sale at the 
larger markets, he could take with him samples of his different 
varieties, and thus dispose of his entire crop, to be delivered at 
the cars or in the city, as might be agreed upon. By this 



16 MARKET DAYS. 

comparatively small outlay of time and money, his net profit 
would be vastly greater than it now is. In the same manner, 
onions and other vegetable crops might be disposed of with 
advantage, both to the seller and the buyer. 

And here we are reminded of an incidental advantage to be 
derived from these fairs, and one by no means to be overlooked 
in forming a correct estimate of them. Some crops, such as the 
apple, for example, are extremely variable, being one year 
abundant in some parts and scarce in others ; and another year, 
vice versa. Some crops too, such as the onion, are raised in 
large quantities, in some sections of the State, and not at all in 
other sections. Now an abundant supply of any commodity 
gluts the market, and often reduces prices to a ruinous extent. 
Hence, where there is an excess of these crops beyond the 
demand for home consumption, it could readily be disposed of 
to purchasers from a distance, who would be drawn to the local 
fairs by the knowledge of this very contingency. 

Besides the opportunity thus afforded for traffic at these fairs, 
they would be attended with peculiar convenience to the 
farmer in hiring laborers. He is now put to great trouble and 
uncertainty in obtaining such as are needed — doubtless owing 
in part to the fact that native labor has been of late largely 
superseded by foreign. But even this labor cannot always 
be commanded at the time it is most wanted by him. He 
cannot spend much time in the busy season in riding round for 
work-people, and unless they happen to offer themselves at his 
door, he must suffer for want of them. Now at the opening of 
the spring work, at haying and at harvesting, if the farmer 
could be sure of meeting at the fair in his neighborhood, a 
large number of men in want of work, of whom he could take 
his pick, it would assuredly be no small convenience both to 
himself and to the persons hired. From this arrangement, a 
scale of prices, which would be highly desirable, would soon be 
fixed for the different kinds of laborers, and as a consequence 
there would be more uniformity of wages paid by our farmers. 
And if it were deemed expedient, a registry might be opened 
for the names of the persons thus seeking employment, and of 
the place where they last worked. 

But it would be difficult to specify in detail, all the benefits 
which might be expected to be derived from establishing regu- 



MARKET DAYS. IT 

lar fairs or market days throughout the State. We have 
endeavored to enumerate but a few of them ; sufficient, how 
ever, to give some definite, and it is to be hoped, favorable 
views in regard to them. Doubtless here, as in other new 
enterprises, many of the advantages would far exceed the most 
sanguine expectations, whilst others would in time spring up 
that were entirely unlooked for. Take for illustration our 
railroads. Many of us can remember with what distrust they 
were regarded by a large part of the community, when they 
were first proposed for consideration. The stage-coach compa- 
nies thought that they should be ruined ; and the farmers 
reasoned very naturally that the general introduction of the 
iron horse, as a means of transportation, would diminish, if not 
destroy, the demand for hay and other provender. But how has 
it turned out ? The stage companies have become the proprie- 
tors of the omnibuses running from the various stopping places 
of the rail cars. And for the use of those omnibuses, and for 
drays, coaches and private vehicles, and more recently for horse 
railroads, the number of horses in the State, and their price 
too, has probably doubled or trebled since the first rail was laid 
here, and the consumption of hay and oats has increased in a 
corresponding ration. Other interesting particulars will readily 
suggest themselves, illustrative of the incidental benefits of 
railroads, equally unforseen by their projectors and the commu- 
nity at large. 

Let us now consider some of the objections that would be 
likely to be urged against the establishing of these fairs. It 
may be said, perhaps, that they propose too great an innovation 
on the present modes of disposing of agricultural products, to 
meet with much favor from the farming community. We all 
know with what reluctance farmers quit long established habits 
and practices, and how slow they are to make any change in 
them. Nor can it be denied that a most radical change is here 
proposed to them, and one which needs to have a fair start 
given to it, in order to overcome the standing objections to 
every new enterprise. To take again for illustration the case 
of railroads. When they were first talked of, the conservative 
men on all sides cried out against this change from the long 
tried and well approved modes of travel on the public highway. 

3 



18 MARKET DAYS. 

Those in any way interested in keeping things as they were, 
joined in the cry of " let well enough alone." 

" But," says J. R. Williams, in an address before the 
Michigan State Agricultural Society, in 1850, when speaking 
of the old maxim that it is best to " let well enough alone," 
" it depends upon what ' well enough ' means. As a maxim 
for a farmer it is pernicious. I hold in my hand two peaches. 
They grew upon trees which sprung from different pits of the 
same original tree. This large, blushing, richly-tinted, melting, 
thin-skinned, and small-stoned peach, is cultivated fruit. The 
small, woolly, tough-skinned and large-stoned peach, is the nat- 
ural fruit, the ' let well enough alone ' kind. I hold in my 
hand two apples, plucked from the same tree, one from a 
grafted, and one from a natural branch. One is the cultivated 
fruit, the other is the ' let well enough alone ' kind. You per- 
ceive the distinction is as marked in the apple as in the peach. 
These are a type and fit illustration of progress and perfection 
in every branch of agriculture." 

Notwithstanding the doubts of some, and the gloomy fore- 
bodings of others, the railroads were started and they who at 
first were most opposed to them, have been as ready as any to 
avail themselves of their benefits. So it would most probably 
be with these fairs ; once started under favorable circum- 
stances, they would give the best proof, by actual experiment, 
of their superiority over the present modes of selling and buy- 
ing agricultural products. It would doubtless take time to 
turn the current of trade into the new channels ; but it would 
come, and the wonder would then be that the work had not 
been undertaken long ago. 

It may be objected to these fairs, too, that they are not 
adapted to the habits of our people ; that they partake too 
much of the character of holidays to be favorably received by 
them. But, it may be asked, how can this be determined with- 
out making the trial ? In fact, it is in our power to give to 
them just such a character as we please. And should they 
become the means of inducing our farmers to spend a few 
hours occasionally in innocent and rational recreation, it may 
well be questioned whether the effect on their minds or morals 
would be at all injurious. It is the bow that is always bent 
that looses its elasticity, so the mind that is constantly intent 



MARKET DAYS. 19 

on business and is never unstrung in social intercourse, loses 
its quickness of perception and its keenness of judgment ; the 
heart that is never warmed into a genial glow of cheerfulness 
and pleasure, becomes cold and torpid. We should not be 
sorry to see as an effect of these fairs, more of the " good 
humor and all social affections and generous sentiments among 
the people," which the constitution specially enjoins upon legis- 
lators and magistrates in all future periods of this Common- 
wealth to countenance and inculcate. 

Other objections might be raised to an enterprise so novel 
and untried as this would be among us. It is not necessary, 
however, to go into the further consideration of them for the 
reason that we cannot conceive of any sufficiently serious to 
require it. It should be borne in mind that the practical ques- 
tion is, not whether there are any evils to which these fairs 
might be liable, but whether they would be overbalanced by 
the positive benefits resulting from them. And this question 
could best, and perhaps only, be settled by an actual experi- 
ment of establishing them. And this brings us to the 
consideration of the best practical method of commencing and 
continuing these fairs throughout the State, so as to create new 
markets for the farmer. 

And first it would be highly desirable, if not essential, that 
the farmers of the Commonwealth should be more fully 
informed as to the working of these fairs, and the advantages 
to be expected from them, in order to their co-operating with 
earnestness and energy in their establishment. If it be true — 
and of this it is too late to doubt — that " where there is a will 
there is a way," - the first great object in starting this enterprise 
is to secure the hearty good will, the intelligent and the 
united will, of the farming community in its favor. This, we 
are persuaded, is vital to its success. With this view, meetings 
might be held in the winter months in the different counties, 
the question fully discussed and a vote taken upon it. A series 
of such meetings might be held in different parts of the same 
counties, until the subject was brought before its whole agricul- 
tural population and their minds were known, with some degree 
of certainty, upon it. And in addition to this, circulars might 
be issued by the State Society, to be distributed through the 
county societies, setting forth the advantages of these fairs, and 



20 MARKET DAYS. 

requesting the opinions of those to whom they were addressed, 
as to the practicability of establishing such fairs in their several 
neighborhoods, and the times and places at which they could 
best be held, also desiring each person to say what part, if any, 
he would take in giving them his support by his attendance and 
otherwise. When all this had been done, we should be in a 
position to judge whether it were advisable to proceed in 
establishing the fairs, or not. If the whole popular current 
was decidedly against it, or such a degree of apathy and indif- 
ference was manifested in respect to it as to make its success 
highly doubtful, then we should say that it was best to wait for 
" the good time coming," rather than to attempt to force its 
advent. But if the public sentiment, as thus ascertained, were 
favorable to the undertaking, especially if a certain enthusiasm 
were excited in the subject, start it then, by all means, and the 
sooner the better. There need be but little formality about it. 
Let individuals in the several neighborhoods near the fair, 
associate themselves together by agreeing to attend, either to 
buy or sell, one taking this and another that article, and all 
determining to lend his aid and encouragement to it. One 
enthusiastic person in a neighborhood, — an energetic, persistent 
man, not easily deterred by trifles, one that sees few or no 
obstacles in the way when a good enterprise is started ; or, 
seeing them, summons fresh pluck to surmount them, — will 
certainly succeed in enlisting the hearty good-will and co-opera- 
tion of nearly all with whom he comes in contact. With book 
and pencil in hand let him call on his neighbors and talk over 
the matter freely with them, and then note down what this one 
and that will do to help on the fair, specifying the articles 
they would severally agree to carry to it. The power of asso- 
ciated action and the force of example, would in this way 
operate quietly but effectually. A few such men — young men, 
if they can be enlisted — will act like leaven to leaven the whole 
mass. 

There need be no regulations made and published as to the 
buying and selling, not even that the sales shall be for cash 
payments, which would certainly be the most desirable mode of 
trade. The fair would be the farmers' exchange — just as the 
merchants have their exchange in the city — where they meet 
to transact business, and self-interest and mutual convenience 



MARKET DAYS. 21 

make the bargains. Neither are there needed any public yards 
or buildings for the display of animals or other products of the 
farm ; but they would be offered for sale at particular points, 
which would soon become well known to the public. On the 
23d of June last, Sanford Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, 
attended a cattle fair at Kilmaurs, in Scotland. In a letter 
published just afterwards in that paper, he says: "there were 
there about four hundred head of cattle, mostly Ayrshire cows 
and heifers, the greater part of which changed hands, although 
the market was dull. They were collected in the principal 
street in the village, the lots of the different owners being kept 
separated by men and dogs. The purchasers looked over the 
animals, and having decided on the ones they wanted, and 
asked the price, made offers, at the same time extending their 
hands. If the offers were accepted, the parties shook hands 
and that consummated the transaction." The whole is a very 
simple affair — as simple as Columbus making the egg stand on 
its end — if we would but take hold in earnest and determine 
to have it succeed. Only make a beginning by collecting 
together on a fixed day and at a fixed place, agricultural pro- 
ducts and men in sufficient numbers, and the market is estab- 
lished. The success of one such day would be almost sure to 
command success on the next, and after a few such days the 
market day would become a permanent and popular institu- 
tion, and would be noted in the almanac, as the different terms 
of the courts are noted. 

Another important question, and one requiring much care 
and deliberation in deciding it, is, how often and where shall 
these fairs be held ? It is clear that this must be left with some 
body of men, in whom the public have confidence. The dif- 
ferent agricultural societies that receive the bounty of the 
Commonwealth, and are required to make an annual return 
to it of their transactions, might be requested to take upon 
themselves this duty. Composed as these societies very gen- 
erally are of farmers, they have the confidence of the farmers, 
and they can best fix the times and places of the fairs, with the 
proper discretion. By their trustees, or by committees chosen 
for the purpose, they might exercise the necessary power with 
regard to the whole matter, with but little danger of its being 
abused. They should in the first place, map out the county, 



22 MARKET DAYS. 

and then select such points as would best accommodate the 
population, having reference to railroad and other facilities. 
The railroad companies could well afford to encourage the fairs, 
by charging but half price to those who pass over their roads 
to their market. To make this matter more specific, let us 
take for example the County of Essex — that being the county 
with which the writer is most familiar — and let four towns be 
fixed upon as near as may be to its four corners, as the places 
where monthly fairs or market days shall be held throughout 
the year. Such four places might be Danvers, (at the Plains,) 
Ipswich, Newburyport, and North Andover, (at Sutton's Mills.) 
Three of these towns have at least two railroads running 
directly to or through them ; and one, Ipswich, has the Eastern 
Railroad passing through its centre. Having settled upon 
these towns and the points in them, at which the market could 
best be held, on the first Wednesday in January let a market 
be held at Danvers, due notice having been given to that effect. 
On the second Wednesday in January let a market come off at 
Ipswich ; the third Wednesday at Newburyport, and the fourth 
Wednesday at North Andover, and so go through each month 
in the year, observing the same order as to the days. In this 
way it would soon be known that the first Wednesday of every 
month was market day at Danvers ; and so of the other towns, 
they would always have the same Wednesday in the month 
for their market day. At first these markets might not be 
so fully attended, but still they should be observed, rain or 
shine, brisk times or dull. As the fairs are started, in respect 
of place and day, so they should be continued, for the reason 
that a change would be difficult ; but more especially that 
the habit of attending a particular market at a regularly recur- 
ring time, would thus become fixed in the life of the farmer. 
And in order to accommodate the whole county by a larger 
display of stock, let some central town, such as Topsfield or 
Georgetown, having good railroad facilities — be the place for 
holding a market day for neat stock and horses in the spring 
and fall, the first Friday in May and October being suitable 
days for that purpose, and not interfering with the other 
markets. 

And in order to encourage this whole enterprise in its infancy, 
it might be advisable for the agricultural societies or public 



,.fS. 23 

ims for certain farm products, 
ced at the regular cattle shows, 
.couragement from them. For 
/n all its varieties, dressed for the 
Al and other meats, might thus be 
honey and eggs, of butter and cheese, 
aid apples, and of fruits and vegetables 
eceive the fostering aid of the societies, 
.e advantage of this mode of bestowing premiums is, that it 
would be the best lot of a given product, as prepared for market 
and exposed to sale, that would receive them, and not the best 
specimens, culled and fitted for parade, as is too often the case 
at our fairs. 



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